The New Orleans BioDistrict development agency, intended by state law to foster growth of a health sciences corridor in Mid-City around where two new hospitals are taking shape, has no revenue sources, no administrative leader and in a dispute with the executive director who left last year over money he claims the group owes him, according to an audit released Monday (Aug. 18) by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

State law created the district in 2005 as the latest in a decades-long string of entities meant to cultivate a biosciences hub in New Orleans. It never had recurring revenue and relied on grants to develop a master plan for the zone around where the new University Medical Center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center are rising.

Attempts by its former executive director, Jim McNamara, to find revenue streams proved to be fruitless. He left in November.

The audit says the agency had a fund balance of $500 at the end of 2013 and shows no immediate signs of generating any revenue. It says the board failed to properly amend its budget, but that "operations of the BioDistrict were limited during 2013."

"The lack of certain funding of the BioDistrict's operations raises substantial doubt to allow it to continue as a going concern," says the audit, compiled by the accounting firm Postlehwaite & Netterville.

"The former President/CEO of the BioDistrict has presented a claim for amounts he claims are owed to him," the audit says. "Management believes that under his arrangement with the BioDistrict, there is no further liability to him and that it is probable that the BioDistrict will prevail in such matter."

Vincent Booth, a lawyer of McNamara, said on Monday he estimates the group owes McNamara $495,000 in back pay over about four years. His annual salary was $165,000, raised to $191,000 in his last year, Booth said.

McNamara worked without pay, Booth said, because he believed the cause of nurturing a biosciences industry in New Orleans was vitally important to the city's economic prospects. And he believed the district would find revenue and eventually pay him.

"They gave him a salary," Booth said. "He did the work. They didn't have the money to pay the salary. They did not consider finding some funding for a salary to be a priority."